Prince Ashokraje Gaekwad
School
CHEMISTRY
INVESTIGATORY
PROJECT 24-25
Topic-Making Plastic from
Starch
Guided By- Anisha Ma’am
▶Index◀
Submitted By-Aarya Vivek
Singh
▪ ABOUT
1. AIM
2. INTOTRODUCTION
▪ THEORY
▪ REQUIREMENT
▪ PROCEDURE
▪ CONCLUSION
▪ RESULT
▪ BIBLIOGRAPHY
▶ABOUT◀
Aim - Making a Plastic from Starch
Introduction - Plastic pollution is currently one of
the biggest environmental concerns. Synthetic
Plastics are made up of long chain of molecules
(polymer) containing repeated units of carbon
atoms (monomer). These Synthetic polymers has
extremely strong carbon-carbon bond with each
other. Because of this inherent molecular stability,
plastics do not breakdown into simpler components
easily. So to find the alternative of this problem I
made a successful attempt to make a
biodegradable plastic. We say it Biodegradable
because natural organisms are capable of breaking
the material down into smaller parts. We use
starch polymer(Amylose) which is biodegradable in
nature and hence successfully converted to
replacement of plastic.
▶Theory◀
▪ Why we chose starch?
→ Starch is made of long chains of glucose
molecules joined together. Strictly, it contains
two polymers: amylose, which is straight
chained
and amylopectin, which is branched.
Glucose(simple sugar) is essential for life, that
being the reason many organisms from bacteria
to human break starch into simple
sugar(glucose).
▪ How it degrades into simple
sugar?
→ Starch is a chain of simple sugar monomers
called glucose the bonds that connect then are
called glycosidic bonds an enzyme called amylase
helps break sugar part by fitting between two
monomers. A water molecule is absorbed is order
to break the glycosidic bond between two
monomer s in a process called hydrolysis.
▶Requirement◀
[Link] starch
2. Propan-1,2,3-triol (glycerol) [Link] acid
[Link] hydroxide
5. Spirit lamp
[Link]
[Link] Indicator paper
[Link] rod
[Link] dish
▶Procedure◀
1. Start the experiment by placing tripod over a
Spirit lamp with china dish at above it.
2. Add some water into the china dish. Note: If too
much water is used, the polymer does not so lidify
and remains a liquid
3. Then add starch little by little with continuous
stir. Avoid making air bubbles. Note: When starch
is dried from an aqueous solution it forms a film as
a result of hydrogen bonding between the chains
4. Add some HCl into the mixture. Note: After step
3 However, the amylopectininhibits the formation
of the film. The addition of hydrochloric acid breaks
the amylopectin down, allowing a more satisfactory
film formation
5. Add propan1,2,3-triol in suitable amount. Note:
The addition of propan-1,2,3-triol has an effect
because of its hydroscopic (water attracting)
properties. Water bound to the propan-1,2,3-triol
gets in amongst the starch chains and inhibits the
formation of crystalline areas, preventing
brittleness and resulting in more ‘plastic’
properties.
6. To neutralize HCl add some NaOH into it.
7. After you observe it forming like Plastic film or
Vaseline like gel lay it down to flat surface.
8. Spread it into long sheet of desired thickness.
9. let it dry properly for at least an hour properly.
10. Peal it out from the surface. And your plastic is
formed.
▶Conclusion◀
Thus we obtain a fair looking plastic. Things that
could be done better is to pierce o ut plastic
properly once its prepared and little food colour
▶Result◀
can be added for good appearance.
We obtained a Plastic piece which demonstrates
that starch can be used to make plastic.
▶BIBLIOGRAPHY◀
[Link]
[Link]
※ Thank You ※
